Clearly, the complete lack of thought emanating from the Colonel should have told Souper that she was out, but it seemed to them that they couldn't really care less. Lifting up the Colonel as nimbly as possible, he hefted her up to a flat sitting area, keeping the leg up while he made the rest of her body lay flat. Human blood was seeping out, so the slug got to work. Opening up the syringe so that the needle was properly adjusted, xhe plunged it into the needed area, squeezing out the nanites into her system. Knowing that the slug would regret this later, Souper began to excrete some mucus from the membranes in their fingers, slippery enough to remove pretty much anything from anything else. Normally this form of evolutionary slime would be used to trip up pursuers, but today it had a different use. Squirting the fluid around the wound, Souper was able to slowly lift the leg, slipping it off slowly from the crystal. After making sure that the flesh around the crystal would make way, the leg was eventually able to be moved from the floor to right above the crystal, where Souper hooked it around and right back to the floor next to it. Getting out a special sponge that the slug had in case xhe accidentally "Mucus'd" something, the slug took a minute or two to clean the wound, to prevent any sort of infection that would be caused by the alien substance entering her system through a wound. Ripping a part of the officer's left sleeve, he made sure the strap was clean, warming it up first with the heat from the pistol, and wrapped it around the wound tightly. No need to have the superior officer bleed out as a result of negligence. After cleaning up everything else, the slug hoisted her up carefully, holding the officer bridal style as xhe took her to the medbay, laying her down on a bed, "I've secured our officer. She looks to be in critical condition" the slug said flatly, wishing to not show that xhe was worried.

"Mr. Kharon is right." Francis edged his way ou into the hallway and glanced about quickly. "Two Mantes are trying to make their way into the engine room and they're quite giddy about it." Francis frowned before he continued. "I don't like this. I clearly detected five mantes initially, but I can't determine what happened to the Brood Commander. I'd like to say there was a bug in there teleportation protocols, pun not intended, but I find it far more likely that the wretch is employing some form of psionic cloaking. In any case, we need to get to that engine room now, so watch your backs and keep your auditory receptors open." Francis turned back toward the door and, to the obvious surprise of several of his comrades, face-planted into the floor and began rubbing his head back and forth, leaving behind a puddle of thick mucus. "No complaining, just cover your boots. If we want to hear something sneaking up on us we've got make as little noise as possible while we move ourselves. Now let's go." As Francis began heading down the hall toward the engine room, he sent a white-list message to the crew warning them of the Brood Commander's mysterious dissapearance.

Ashley was frightened, there were not-so-friendly mantis on the ship, there had been a sudden shaking and loud noises that seemed to indicate some sort of explosion, and now the Colonel had been brought in the medbay, hurt and unconscious. The painkillers couldn't keep Ashley from noticing these things, but they were making it difficult for her to process and understand what was happening, making her more like a frightened child.

Heading over to the frightened Terran, Souper could feel nothing but distress and a certain childish fear. Wondering what they could do to help, Souper got a wet, warm rag and xhe used it with great effect; The slug leaned her down and lay it across her forehead, "Child of Earth, you should be happy that I was able to get the Colonel here. She is in bad condition, but she will live. As will you. We'll make it through this. I've been through much worse and came out alive, and I'm just a cook. If necessary I will dispense with the stories of happiness that will make your human heart swell and then unswell, because according to the books I've read it is not good to keep swelling after that" the slug spoke, speaking oddly quietly and softly, as if the slug was talking to it's own child.

Ashley felt something warm and wet across her forehead, it felt nice. The slug responsible for this began to use words, while they sounded quite conforming, Ashley's brain was having a difficult time keeping up with it.

"Don't worry we will get through this with love, friendship and hugs!" Was basically what Souper said, Ashley figured. As Souper spoke Ashley looked at the slug and cocked her head.

Without any real indication Ashley's hands reached up as she tried to grab the slug's antennas.

Not even moving, the Slugperson reluctantly let her grab their antennae, as uncomfortable as it was for her to touch them. They were VERY sensitive, but at the same time, Souper knew that causing the human to panic was the worst thing that the slug could do. Bending their head so that she could grab them easier, however, was something that Souper knew that they should, despite the immense discomfort caused by grabbing of the antennae, do to comfort the ailing human, "Not to tightly" they said, tensing up as the human's fingers arrived. Cold. It felt very cold.

A little confused by the thoughts emanating from the young woman, the slug touched their own antennae, a bit self-conscious, "They aren't slimy at all" xhe muttered, looking angry for a moment before the feeling passed, "It's alright. The sensation is different for you. If I were to touch your arm, I'm sure I'd have the same reaction if I'd never touched a human army before. You are unwell, you should try to limit your movements" Souper said, still more worried than anything else.

For a few moments, Daniels was silent. He listened to the comm chatter carefully, sorting through the information it relayed, and adding it to what he had already learned from his own senses. The information wasn't hard to understand, but that didn't make the information any better. Between what he had felt and what was said, he could tell that the explosion had originated in the sensor room, which meant that the botany room was likely damaged as well. More importantly, however, it meant that ever bit of the ship rear of the bulkhead near medbay that hadn't been sealed was now effectively space. No atmosphere, inaccessible without a sealed suit. Thankfully the advisor's office had been closed off when the blast hit, otherwise he'd be in the vacuum that moment. That wasn't all, however. Rehn's comment indicated that one of the engines was, in some way, damaged, and with the sensor room obliterated, that left them blind, and perhaps crippled as well. On top of that, Landes was still injured which cut their fighter force by a third, and the mercenary hadn't reported in, so they had maybe a third to two thirds of theor available fighters. The Colonel was unconscious, possibly in critical condition, which left Chastain in charge.

Which would be fine. Except for the fact that Chastain hadn't reported in since the Mantis boarded either. Overall, this meant a blinded and possibly crippled ship with at most sixty percent of its fighters, a ship that had no idea what it had jumped into, more than half of deck two had been spaced, a command structure missing, in one way or another, its two highest ranking officers, had a number of crew members still unnacounted for with at least two more bugs battering down the door to the engine room. And on top of it all, a Brood Commander still unaccounted for.

When it rains, it pours. The Major thought to himself darkly, finally stirring himself from his position by the office door.

"This is Major Daniels." He said into the comm, crossing the room toward the hatch in the floor. "I want all surviving crew members to report by comm to their immediate superior, if they haven't already. Anyone who fails to comply will be considered MIA until such a time as their status can be confirmed. Can, I want you and your team to continue as you are. Once you've eliminated the two remaining boarders, I want you to do a sweep of the ship; I want to make d*** sure that that Brood Commander isn't here anymore."

"I want a minimum of two combat-capable crew in the medbay, in case an enemy finds their way there. Zokandar, I want you to keep your eyes sharp. We don't know what's out there. If any pilots are capable of getting to the hangar, I want someone to launch and get a good look at where we are. Take caution when launching, once again, we don't know what's out there." He paused, crouching near the edge of the access panel. "I want a combat capable crew member watching the bridge, if one can get there. Engineering, once those Mantis are gone, you need to get our shield up and running properly and see if you can restore what's been vented on deck two. Priorities are in that order."

"And for the love of God, if someone knows where Chastain is, find her."

Edited by Simon the Digger, Apr 26 2014 - 09:12 PM.

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On this eve, the thirtieth anniversary of that first colony, many are left to wonder; is the world fast approaching a breaking point?

By now the ship had advanced, drawing closer and continuing to scan the Kestrel. It floated in front of the bridge, watching and waiting to see if the wounded ship made a move.

"Sir, they seem to be in critical condition: their engines are leaking radiation and overall structural integrity is down by at least twenty percent. I've seen those blast types before, they were hit by mantis."

"Mantis eh." The Engi pondered it for a moment, then opened the comms. "Damaged vessel: I am Captain Geist. I see that you've encountered some trouble, and are in need of repairs. We have supplies to patch up your vessel, in exchange for three of your crew. You have two minutes to respond before I target the exposed sections of your hull and cut your ship in two."

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"In short, my English Lit friend, living in a mental world of absolute rights and wrongs, may be imagining that because all theories are wrong, the earth may be thought spherical now, but cubical next century, and a hollow icosahedron the next, and a doughnut shape the one after." -Isaac Asimov, responding to a letter he had received saying that scientific certainty was false, The Relativity of Wrong

He was bleeding. Devas was certain of that. Debris had caught him in the side, shredding through his uniform, though the under armor had stopped the worst of it, he could still feel a few gashes here and there. He shook his head, pulling himself to his feet. Somewhere, had screwed up. Badly. That as all he knew at this point. He’d been sprinting for the engine room and now…

Well. That stayed the same. He still had his V45, he still had a relatively clear path to the engines and….he could still see the telltale glow of a cutter, just around the corner. Devas froze in his tracks for a moment, before slowly slinking forwards, hoping that the buggers hadn’t noted his presence. With a breath, he learned around the corner. He could see them, two buggers slicing through the door.

Devas raised his V45 and fired, sending plasma screaming at his insectoid foes.

OOC: No idea how effective that’d be, so I’ll wait for Humva’s word.

Edited by Basilisk, Apr 26 2014 - 10:39 PM.

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I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You are wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.

The radio broadcast, as it was on an open frequency, cut in on Can's radio, and, in a moment of insight, he responded. "This is the Captain." He answered on a return signal. "Are you open to negotiation on the price? I have two Mantis here who would make fine stock." Without waiting for a reply, he spoke into another channel. "Harken, Rehn. Attempt to capture Mantis but kill if necessary. Stun bursts, I want them knocked out." As Can said this, he himself came up behind Devas. "Skinter here crewman, don't shoot." A moment later, he pulled a hexagonal black-and-yellow checkered tube from the bandolier of grenades he'd retrieved earlier; a stun grenade, much like the ones used earlier, and tossed it around the corner.

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That being said, thag thag thaggity thag thagness.

-Rover

"A memo was sent to Astaria asking if it would at all be possible to make a flying goat.""The Astarians responded that making a goat fly would be trivial; making it land safely would be another matter entirely."

"Captain?" The Engi replied, confused. "You are a League vessel; you have no authority as a captain. Give me your Colonel, or your next highest ranking officer."

/-/

The plasma shots burned the Mantis, their supermetal armor conducting the heat, though the underlying insulation kept them mostly fine. One shot hit a joint and sent the Mantis' arm flying off, the creature screeching with rage as it charged forward, intending to cut the Vendarian to shreds with its remaining arm, while its partner continued slicing at the door, the plasma torch three thirds of the way complete. When the grenade rolled around, though, they were both taken out, screeching at the light and sound.

Edited by Engineer Alexandra Humva, Apr 26 2014 - 10:48 PM.

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"In short, my English Lit friend, living in a mental world of absolute rights and wrongs, may be imagining that because all theories are wrong, the earth may be thought spherical now, but cubical next century, and a hollow icosahedron the next, and a doughnut shape the one after." -Isaac Asimov, responding to a letter he had received saying that scientific certainty was false, The Relativity of Wrong

Devas swore, he swore in a long string of expletives in his native tongue, which was, at best, a patchwork of burrowed languages and outright thief of linguistics at worst. A reasonable response he thought, the fact there was a slaver vessel making threats seemed to confirm that the universe hated this ship and everyone on it. “First buggers, then slavers. Think they’d have the decency to kill each other. Savages.” He kept his weapon raised and ready, just in case the Mantis shrugged off the stunner.

Which they did not. "Right then." Devas strode forwards, V45 in hand. "Doesn't seem sensible to risk them waking up."

Edited by Basilisk, Apr 26 2014 - 10:51 PM.

0

I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You are wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.

"Nevermind." Can said into the radio. "Those mantis have just become a bit dead for your tastes. Once I make sure I have living superiors I'll put one of you through to them." Can said, then stepped forward with his revolver, loading a pair of laser burst bullets and putting one through the head of each stunned Mantis.

0

That being said, thag thag thaggity thag thagness.

-Rover

"A memo was sent to Astaria asking if it would at all be possible to make a flying goat.""The Astarians responded that making a goat fly would be trivial; making it land safely would be another matter entirely."

Devas whirled around. “You didn’t.” He paused for a moment, letting the words of the security officer sink in. “You did. You attempted to deal with slavers. In the Imperium you’d be shot as a warning to others.” He laughed bitterly, an uncharacteristic display of emotion. “But in the Confederacy you’re a security chief. They sure know how to pick them.” The chief engineer shook his head. “Petty and weak. No iron at all. Second things get tough; all your words about freedom and law go out the window.”

Without another word, though with a palpable air of disgust hanging around him, Devas strode up to the engine room’s door and began to punch in the password.

0

I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You are wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.

"Devas." Can said. "We are not in your little upstart Imperium. We are not in my Confederacy either. We are beyond the edge of civilized space. There are no laws and no higher ideals here. All we have is what a man can do, and what a man can't do. Don't forget that." Without waiting for an answer, Can turned around. "Daniels, this is Skinter. Ship is clear of hostiles for now. Harken and I are heading to the medbay." Can gave a wave at the power-armored specialist, signaling him to follow.

0

That being said, thag thag thaggity thag thagness.

-Rover

"A memo was sent to Astaria asking if it would at all be possible to make a flying goat.""The Astarians responded that making a goat fly would be trivial; making it land safely would be another matter entirely."

“And it’s open.” Devas took in the sight of the engine room, taking an account of everything before him. Everyone seems intact at least. “Right then.” He addressed the crewmen under his command. “I’m going to be sprinting to the shield room shortly. I’ll try to keep in radio contact. You…are going to hold down the fort as well as you are able and respond to any critical situations shipboard you can. Provided the area is secure. I’m not losing anyone today.” With that, the chief engineer swirled around and carefully stepped over the corpses of the Mantis.

He nodded at the power-armored form of Harken. “An escort would be appreciated.” He gestured at a few small red stains on his uniform. “Not life-threatening, but I’d like someone watching my back all the same.”

He glared at Can. "Worthless slaving slime. I've nothing to more to say to you."

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I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You are wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.

"Kelezagg, Daniels needs an escort." Can said into his radio. "Keep an eye on him, give him a claw if he needs anything." Can said before heading towards the ladders. "Harken, with me."

0

That being said, thag thag thaggity thag thagness.

-Rover

"A memo was sent to Astaria asking if it would at all be possible to make a flying goat.""The Astarians responded that making a goat fly would be trivial; making it land safely would be another matter entirely."

After finally finishing preparing supplies Karin got around to tending to Ashely's wounds. She stripped off the old makeshift bandages, then pressed a new pad of gauze against the wound with one hand while wrapping more around Ashley's body to hold it in place.

"All right," she said to the cat-girl, "that should be sufficient for now. If something starts to hurt just let me know." She pressed a few buttons on the medical table's console so that if any abnormalities were detected in the patient it would ping her master console so she would be aware immediately.

And now for the Colonel. While the slug, Souper, had done a decent job of patching her up for the moment there was likely internal damage that needed to be dealt with.

OOC: Not 100% certain on how Ashley's wound was so if that needs correction I can edit.

"Your message has been received, Captain Geiste." Daniels said over the comms, settling into his seat on the bridge. He had, after relaying his orders to the crew, gone back through the service tunnels, surfacing in the remote engine room when Can started speaking, and settling into his seat as he made his reply. "This is Major William Daniels. For the moment, I am the available officer on board the ship."

"We have heard your message, and we are prepared to comply. We have a shuttle in our hangar, we will use it to send over three of our crew members. However, our ship is, as you've noticed, heavily damaged; It will take us a short time to get the crew members to the shuttle, and make it ready to lift off. May I request twenty minutes time to send them over? We will keep our weapons powered down. I await your response."

That said, he immediately flipped his comm to secure channels, to prevent the other ship from over hearing. He cleared his throat, cracking his fingers. "Alright, folks, I'm sure you heard that. It's also not the case. I want that shuttle loaded up with explosives yesterday, I want three boarding crew ready to go with it, someone manning the teleporter, someone stabilizing the shields, and enough people standing by in the hangar to push a fighter. That fighter being Deuce's, and outfitted with its hull beam and its missile launcher. Now, if you would all like to keep breathing."

"I'll explain all of this as soon as I get a response from our new friend."

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On this eve, the thirtieth anniversary of that first colony, many are left to wonder; is the world fast approaching a breaking point?

OOC: Alright then, I'm in, and now I'm tending to an ambassador's wounds, evidently. I'm sure this will make a bit more sense once we get going.

IC: "You'll be fine," Dr. Nicole Sarany said as she examined the ambassador. It seemed as though they would live for the time being, some cuts and bruises had been sustained but nothing too serious. Of course if there had been anything serious she would hardly have been able to do much. She had not exactly been permitted to bring her own equipment with her, and the ship's medical supplies were very limited, especially for prisoners.

Deciding that these new orders overrided what Can had been given a moment ago, he decided that the "Someone manning the teleporter" ought to be him, since he didn't trust anyone else to man the blasted thing. On his way there, he gave a suggestion to the Major.

"Daniels, Skinter here. If necessary, we can put one of the fighters outside and patch its inputs into the computer to use its sensors as a temporary sensor suite. I'm on the teleporter now, who do you want me programming a solution for?"

0

That being said, thag thag thaggity thag thagness.

-Rover

"A memo was sent to Astaria asking if it would at all be possible to make a flying goat.""The Astarians responded that making a goat fly would be trivial; making it land safely would be another matter entirely."

Not bothering to check if his teammates were following, Wulf vaulted over the desk and out into the hallway, took three strides aft, and swung open the armory door. His eyes darted rapidly across the dimly-lit interior, searching...

Bingo.

Seconds later, the privateer was back out in the hallway again, having supplemented his grey camouflage military fatigues and 9mm revolver with a standard-issue armored vest, combat-ready kinetic gunpowder SMG, and a full-tech riot helmet.

"Wulf Kharon here, en route to the shuttle bay." he proclaimed, shoving the helmet com toggle to 'On'. A quick burst of static sounded in his ears as the wireless receiver systems calibrated, then leveled off into crystal clarity just in time for any replies he might receive.

OOC: Alright, there still isn't a lot I can do, being stuck in a prison and all. Given it's a slave ship, and I'm able to tend to wounds, I guess that would imply that all the prisoners are being held together, or at least in large groups as opposed to individual cells.

IC: Nicole crouched down nervously against the wall of their cell. Around her some people were hurt, others starved, and a few here and there coming down with various sicknesses. It was more than she could take. She took a moment to reach under her collar and remove the small metal chain. On the end of it was a circular locket which she opened. Inside were two pictures, one of her, and another of a young raven-haired woman.

OOC: I thought I'd take this time to start establishing a bit about Nicole's character.

Well I wouldn't call it a large group, maybe five or six total. Not the biggest slave ship.

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"In short, my English Lit friend, living in a mental world of absolute rights and wrongs, may be imagining that because all theories are wrong, the earth may be thought spherical now, but cubical next century, and a hollow icosahedron the next, and a doughnut shape the one after." -Isaac Asimov, responding to a letter he had received saying that scientific certainty was false, The Relativity of Wrong

Ashley did feel some discomfort as the old bandages were removed and new ones were placed, thankfully the rather powerful pain meds she'd been injected with earlier prevented her from feeling much. In fact she'd hardly noticed the doctor replacing the bandages as she started to stare off into space.

Devas, deeming the actions of the feckless, weak-willed security chief to be below his concern for the moment, had brushed by him on his way to the shield room. He’d get the shields running regardless. The plan presented by the major seemed sane enough, as such things went. A lot of variables though, a lot of things that could go wrong, so having the shield ups regardless would be a smart choice. Still, even as he strode to the shield room, something nagged at him. He keyed comm and opened up a secure channel with Daniels. “Sir, I’m en route to the shield room….and….the recent actions of the security chief have called his morality, suitability for his position and overall character into question, to the point where Imperial Law demands his immediate execution. I’ll be filing a report later.”

IC (Ameli)

Ameli took the change in situation in stride; she’d seen worse bungles in her time on Bastion. The jungles…..well, the less she thought about them the better. “Well.” She crossed her arms and eyed the make shift fire-bombs she’d fashioned. “Guess I won’t be needing these.” She followed Daniels to the bridge, figuring he might as well take up her proper position now that the situation had gone from ‘the jungles on fire, the local carnosaurs are attacking and the insurgents have air support’ to merely ‘the jungles on fire and the carnosaurs are attacking’.

“Major Daniels.” She snapped off a quick salute as she entered the bridge. “I’ll be deferring to you.”

Edited by Basilisk, Apr 27 2014 - 04:41 PM.

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I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You are wrong, of course. There are, always and only, the bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides.

OOC: @Atton Rand: You might want to take that to the discussion topic.

OOC: Fair enough. I guess I'll just have to wait here patiently for you peoples to get on the slaver ship so I can get out of this cell and start interacting with people.

IC: As Nicole hid the locked under her collar she looked around at the situation before her. They had barely eaten for some time, she could not recall how long it had been. "Why did I come back," she muttered to herself. The ambassador seemed to be alright, but for how long that would last she couldn't say. Some of the others in the prison were huddled together for warmth, but Nicole kept her distance. She hated crowds, and wanted to find the most open space she could.

She found it by curling up in the corner. Here she could rest her head against the wall, and think back to what happened before. She could still remember when she first became a doctor and got talked into signing up for the army, and then she met... her. The memories seemed to be all Nicole had now, and as she rested her head against the wall she closed her eyes and retreated into her mind.

IC:
Errogaven was sitting in the slave hold with the rest of the slaves and the guard when he heard some noise in the rest of the ship. "What's going on,"he asked the human guard. "About to capture more innocents for a profit?" "Shut up!"the guard yelled, slapping Errogaven across the face. "Ow!" The guard yowled, cradling his sore hand. "Heh," Errogaven chuckled as he smirked in victory.

OOC:
Since I first found out I would be on a slaver ship, I imagined that scene.

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Γαρ επιστιμη!

Для науки!

For science!

(Literally, it means "For knowledge", but it can be taken as "For science")

Nicole opened her eyes in surprise, and half consciously caught a glimpse of one of the guards clutching his fist in pain at the far corner, closer to the door. A rocky alien was there, apparently smug in its victory. To Nicole, it was little more than a moment relief before her eyes shut once more.